Founder & CEO
James Mackay, Ph.D. founded Kateran Consulting in 2023 and provides drug development and organizational leadership consulting to a range of biotechs across multiple therapy areas. Prior to founding Kateran Consulting, James was CEO and Founder of Aristea Therapeutics, an immunology focused company developing treatments for rare inflammatory disorders and was instrumental to the company raising $138m between 2018 and 2023. James was President & CEO of Ardea Biosciences from 2013 to 2018.
Prior to joining Ardea Biosciences, James had a 30 year career at AstraZeneca working across the agrochemical, industrial chemical and pharmaceuticals. James led project teams that took 6 drugs through to approval and commercialization across multiple therapy areas.
James has played a pivotal role in the San Diego Ecosystem since his arrival in 2013 and has been a member of the Board and Executive Committee of CONNECT since 2014, was Chair of CONNECT Board of Directors from 2021 to 2023/2025-2026 and has been a Board member of BIOCOM since 2016. James is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Life Science Cares – San Diego and a member of the angel investor group, NuFund. James is a former Board member of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Arthrosi Therapeutics and a past President and Chairman of Ardea Biosciences.
James is an independent Board member for Privo Technologies, MatriSys Biosciences, Venquis Therapeutics, Resolute Science and independent Board Chair of Curadh MTR and Nuvig Therapeutics. James also hold several biotech Board Advisor roles and is a co-founder of Lipidio Pharmaceuticals and Thirona Bio.
James has a BSc in Genetics and Ph.D. in Medical Genetics from Aberdeen University, Scotland.